Advert of the Week

When the Morris Ital roared onto our screens at its June 1980 launch, BL put out this terrific advert to celebrate the fact. OK, so we now know that it was little more than a warmed-over Marina, powered by the upcoming Metro’s A-Plus engine, and styled by Harris Mann, but with the Ital Design connection in its production engineering was so exciting from a marketing sense, that the marketing department leaped on it with relish…

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Keith Adams It’s hard not to love the message being pushed by GM’s genius marketing team in 1985. From its launch in 1981, the brilliant Vauxhall Cavalier MkII was stealing sales left, right and centre from Austin Rover and Ford, offering up a package that reps and middle managers really wanted. This advert makes it clear, in […]

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Keith Adams Don’t let it be said that national stereotyping is a predominantly British pass time. This European effort (shown in Germany as well as, possibly, Austria and Switzerland) advertising the BL range in 1979 (why it’s still under the ‘Leyland’ banner is anyone’s guess) is a charming sideways swipe at the individuals that make up […]

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Turn up your Sony Trinitron, un-pause your Ferguson Videostar and enjoy this prime slice of 1980s nostalgia. 10 July 1986 was the launch date of the Rover 800 and, as you can see from this advert, its high-tech demeanor must have looked like something else, compared with the olde worlde charm of the outgoing Rover SD1. Mind […]

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The marketing push for the MG GS begins in earnest now, with a new TV advert being aired across the UK. The MG Motor UK team is selling this as a trio of adverts, but, hey, we’d like to see more to come – like the Gold Blend couple or the Bisto family, perhaps. The company says the advert will be […]

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Keith Adams Back in the late-1980s, Rover was trying very hard to make its products more aspirational – and, it has to be said that, for a brief period of time, anyway, the company was extremely successful at doing just this. In that spirit, this wonderful TV advert depicting the Rover 800 Vitesse in the […]

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In 1976, the Rover SD1 was the pride of the British car industry. It was great to look at, excellent value, and stacked up well against all comers. It proved so good that it convinced the panel of the European car of the year to vote it their favourite car – awarding it the prize against strong opposition such as the Ford Fiesta.

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Keith Adams Move over to Austin Rover Austin Rover had a fair bit of new metal to crow about back in 1982. The post-launch euphoria of the Metro had yet to die off and ‘Move over to Austin Rover’ seemed like a good way of promoting the newly-introduced follow-on models. The actor, and former Cowley Apprentice, […]

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Living the Range Rover dream Who says that off-roaders are all about the school-run and choking up city streets? The latest generation Range Rover, the L405 is in the running to be one of the best all-round cars in the world, combining superb interior ambiance, great on-road dynamics and excellent off-road ability. This advert gives […]

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Beauty with brains behind it… The Morris Marina was to be the bright white Knight of the recently created British Leyland Motor Corporation when it hit the market in 1971 – this advert did a great job of making it seem sexy enough to entice Britain’s hard-working sales reps. Would you think any manufacturer would […]

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Keith Adams For those who say that MG Motor UK doesn’t have a strong idea of what it needs to do to sell its cars in the UK, we present this brand video, released at the time of the 6’s launch in the UK during the spring of 2011. The video, as produced by Ridley […]

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Keith Adams It’s 2004, and MG Rover sales are nosediving. The company’s image was being pulled through the mud following the Phoenix 4’s self-inflicted pension crisis, and buyers have lost confidence. The company needed to get bums on seats and decided to engage in a little rabble-rousing. This advert was the answer – to tell […]

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Keith Adams Only one aircraft manufacturer makes cars Spare a moment for poor old Saab. Over the past three years, the once-proud company has endured a humiliating fall from grace that makes MG Rover’s seem like a pleasant walk in the park. First there was the confusion over its buy-out, then the on-off-on affair with […]

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Keith Adams Picture the scene – it’s 1988, and you’re a middle-ranking salesman climbing your way up the marketing totem pole. It’s a competitive place to be, and your choice of company car was absolutely essential. Buy the right one, and people thought you were a success; get it wrong, and you were on a […]

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Keith Adams Remember when 90bhp was enough? When the Vauxhall Cavalier Mk2 was launched in August 1981, it really did revolutionise the repmobile market. Yes, as FWD saloons went, it was conventionally engineered, but its solidity and all-round competence did rather a lot of GM’s fortunes. The result: fleet managers quickly switched allegiances from Ford. […]

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Keith Adams When the Austin Montego hit the dealers in 1984, it proved to be something of a compromise choice in the repmobile market. Not quite sporting and dynamic enough to compete with the darling Vauxhall Cavalier Mk2, and not quite fleet-friendly enough to wrestle the value for money crown from the Ford Sierra, it […]

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Keith Adams In 1985, Citroën facelifted its long-running CX fastback. There was little wrong with the basic shape of the car, but with the onset of newer aerodynamically styled rivals such as the Audi 100 C3 and Renault 25, all of a sudden, the chrome-bumpered CX was beginning to look a little twee. So, the […]